#awinewith Jessica Ndenda
MEET Jessica
Jessica is the Founder of Olive Louise Social & The Belle Evolution
Find Jessica here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:06):
Jess, we made it. We're here. How are you? Thank you so much for being on the Spark podcast tv.
Jessica Ndenda (00:13):
You're so welcome. Excited to be you. Have loved following everything you guys have been doing. I'm an avid watcher.
Danielle Lewis (00:19):
Amazing. I love to hear that. So let's tell the people at home what it is you do. I'm an online stalker of yours from way back as well, and I'm devastated that I'm over in W eight at the moment and can't come to bell events, but you do more than that. So why don't we start with a what it is you actually do.
Jessica Ndenda (00:40):
There's no non wanky way of introducing yourself. I've discovered after doing it many times. So I'm just going to say all the things. I
Danielle Lewis (00:48):
Love it. I'm here for it. I'm here for the Wankiness. Do it.
Jessica Ndenda (00:50):
It's so wanky. Or when someone else, when you go to events and someone else read your bio while you walk on stage and you're like,
Danielle Lewis (00:57):
Mouth,
Jessica Ndenda (00:58):
My bad. But my name is Jess. I live in Brizzy and I have five kids and multiple businesses, which makes people think I'm on crack, but I'm not. I love being busy. So I have Olive, Louis Social, which is my first business and I guess the biggest and the main breadwinner of the soon to be three. And that is a digital marketing agency in Brizzy. But we're pretty different in what we do. It was born from me having a lot of kids and a lot of skills and having no idea what I needed to do in this world, but wanted to do something big and really needed a way of making money really quickly when I had my children. So now that's a big part of our culture. Even to today, we hire working moms and young women, not that we don't like men, it just seems to be who we attract more than anything else and really nurture them to be great in whichever capacity that looks like for them and different ways and likewise with our clients.
(01:57):
So we do some pretty ballsy things in the marketing world and rewrite a few rules and I love it. And then I have the Bell evolution, which was born about three years ago and it's really a platform for women in business. And it started off as events and really just networking events that I wanted to go to because there wasn't any at the time that felt like we could have real conversations and real conversations for women at all stages of business. I felt like there was a lot of support for startups, but an expectation when networking that we talk about ourselves in a certain way and it was just really awkward and not my vibes. I cannot do small talk. I despise it with everybody in my body. So yeah, I created a group of parties and it's grown onto a bit of a beast now with events in different states and a membership and a mastermind group. And soon we're in the process of building another arm of that which will be support for schools and young people wanting to figure out where their place is in the world and the confidence and resilience and the thinking that needs to come with that. So keeps me out of trouble.
Danielle Lewis (03:03):
Oh my God. And so you don't sleep, I assume.
Jessica Ndenda (03:07):
I think it a little bit more. Baby number five was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back, but I've always Maybe
Danielle Lewis (03:16):
Number five, hold up a second. So you also have five small businesses on the side?
Jessica Ndenda (03:22):
I do. I have five little dictators. Yeah, it's a lot. It is a lot. I think honestly, it never felt like a lot people would always say to me, oh, do so much. And I'm like, wow, you must do so little. I didn't feel a lot, but baby number five has definitely been big. But in full transparency, my husband's home doing the kid and the business juggle with me too. So it's definitely not the same as when he wasn't home, which was the first part of my journey. But yeah, it is a lot. But I always find it so funny, I'm going on a wormhole here, but people's reaction to that, when I worked in my corporate job, if a guy had a baby and came back to work, everyone wouldn't be like, oh my god, you're so inspiring full-level that his wife is home and has his stuff handled. But when I did it, everyone would be like, oh my God, but I have someone at home handling my stuff. So yeah, it definitely challenges people's ideas, but
Danielle Lewis (04:20):
Well that seems to be a common theme here. So wanting to build Olive Louie's social in a way that was different from employees to, I love the ballsy moves, which I know aligns to your new branding, but even the bell events creating something that you wanted to go to that didn't exist. So doing things differently and carving your own path kind of seems to be like your North star for all of these things.
Jessica Ndenda (04:51):
It really does. It's so funny you word it like that because it's really come front to mind for me lately as a young kid, even into my teenage and early adult years, I was always so uncomfortable not doing what felt authentic to me, whether it was what I was wearing when I was trying to copy what was cool or going out and drinking when everyone thought that was cool, but really had no idea how to figure out what I wanted to do and didn't have role models or conversations in that space at all. And now going through motherhood and the way motherhood looks me is so different. I love my kids, but I really don't like spending a lot of time with them. I'm not that mom. I don't feel the need to cut sandwiches into shapes to put them in their lunchbox. Everything that my generation told me motherhood was I made me grossly unhappy.
(05:43):
And it felt really hard at the time to find the way of finding what motherhood looked for me and even business. And I hated the idea of being a feminist. Feminists to me were very whinging, complaining. I didn't understand a lot of the tools, but there was this real moment of realizing I just carry business differently as a woman and I carry the mental load differently and I want to have a business where I can love my people and HR books not tell me it's wrong or that I have to think with this really compartmentalized idea of emotions behind business. I need to figure out what this looks like for me. And it didn't come from a place of I'm going to pave the way and change the world. It came out of a place of desperation to figure out my own survival method. And from there I do use my story to try to help others I guess.
(06:37):
And it seems like a really gross thing to say. As I said, a bit of vomit comes up, but I found myself in a space where people are watching my story saying, oh, you've got your life together and it's so inspiring. And I thought, if that is what you're getting from my Instagram doing the wrong thing, it's not that way at all. And so a year and a half ago, January, 2022, I committed to sharing my whole life in hopes of starting some conversations around just what does motherhood look for you for you? What does work look like for you? What does everything look for you? And really just for my daughter's friends, because they were the one who made me TikTok famous, but I thought, Hey, if they're watching me tackle life, it's better than probably everything else they're watching on TikTok. And it just kind of took off from there. I'd love to tell it was this really inspiring decision to I'm going to highlight these issues, but it wasn't, it was just desperation and sharing it for just to kind of have a fair representation as opposed to a highlights reel.
Danielle Lewis (07:38):
Well, and I love that as well because I was going to ask you if we are all sitting here going, holy crap, life, business, motherhood, it isn't all happening how I planned it to happen and I'm feeling totally stuck. I was going to ask, did you go through a process? Was this organic? Did you ask yourself some hard questions? How did you actually get to the place where you're like, nah, I'm going to make this work for me. I'm going to show this warts and all. Were there a few hard questions? What happened?
Jessica Ndenda (08:08):
Yeah, I have a few actual exercises that I did and I didn't get these from anywhere. It was just what was in my head. But when I had baby number four and I can remember saying to my husband who was still working his nine till five at the time, how are we going to do this? Because I had had baby three through the business. I went to prospect meetings, breastfeeding, he sat on my lap for eight hours a day while I did the thing. And it was not a vibe. I survived it and I'm so proud of what I did and I did it because I didn't have another option. And anyone listening out there, you are capable of doing that too. However, it was the most exhausting and mentally draining year of my life. And I think until you as a couple have swapped each other's shoes, you don't ever know what is on the other side.
(08:59):
So when we had baby number four, I remember saying to my husband, what are we going to do? I can't do that again. The business has grown. I can't be taking baby's things like I need help. And he was like, it'll be fine. You've done it before. Stop stressing. You're just hormonal and pregnant and blah, blah, blah. And it worked out that he took paternity leave. So he took the 18 weeks paid leave instead of me. And by the end of those 18 weeks, he was like, what are you going to do? You need help you's like a full-time job. Just getting the right kid in the right uniform to the right school. This is ridiculous. Who can live like this? It was such, I love it. I sat down in that moment and I wrote a list of everything I thought mothers did and really then got a highlighter and highlighted which ones that I wanted to do and which really questioned everything on that list.
(09:49):
Do I actually need to do this to be a good mother or do I just feel like I have to? And part of it was giving some of those roles to my husband and part of them was releasing them completely and having the conversations with people in my life to do that. And I came up with this mantra for myself that you can be a great mother in a moment. I thought about what impacted me as a young person, what I felt like it impacted my kids. And you only have to have a really intentional moment to be a great mother. And whether that's a ten-minute moment, a four-hour moment a whole day, or sometimes it's a 30 minute, thirty-second face time, but it's just an intentional moment that I have with everyone of my kids every day. And I discovered quite openly that I'm never going to be a PMC mum.
(10:32):
I'm never volunteering at my kids. It's just not me. And I'm so thankful for the women that do do that and love doing that. But it's not me. It's not my version of motherhood. My kids are never going to wear matching socks. I've released that. They're probably never going to wear iron. I still don't, don't worry. And I just became okay with the things that I didn't want to do. I don't care about my kids wearing matching outfits. I no longer need to puree organic broccoli into brownies. They're going to eat frozen broccoli covered and tomato sauce. All I've got time to achieve. And we started having those conversations as a family. So much so that my daughter the other day was standing with some friends and I was listening to her and they're like, is your mum coming to the, I dunno what they were doing like a paper plane thing.
(11:15):
She was like, hell no, my mum doesn't do that. And I was like, Hey, you go girl. Why am I flag? I love it. Exactly. So that was a really big thing. And then the other thing that I did was I have this terminology around glass balls. So when you're juggling all the balls, and there are seasons of life where I'm great at juggling them all and there's other seasons where a few of those have to drop, which are the ones that I never make sure I drop. And I have three for my family as me as a wife and a mother, three for myself, for my personal care and environment and three for my business. And they are just come rain, hail or shine. Those three glass balls are things that never go without my full attention. And that sounds like a really straightforward thing, but I can promise you when you're juggling all the balls, it is probably the ones you should be most careful with that you normally drop. So that was another thing that I did. And they're written on the wall in front of me and they're a constant reminder of what I need to do. And I reassess constantly.
Danielle Lewis (12:13):
I love that so much because that's just such a powerful exercise. I'm sure everyone's been in a situation where there are so many things on your to-do list that you're looking at it and you're like, I can't even pick one. I can't even prioritize. I'm so overwhelmed, I don't even know where to start. But when you actually have a vision for your life and those non-negotiables, it actually helps you prioritize as well and kind of go, well actually three of those things on my to-do list fall into that category. So whatever else I do today, those are the three things that are getting done. Everything else is a bit of a bonus. So it's actually such a great way to prioritize life as well if you can actually have that conversation with yourself about what you find important.
Jessica Ndenda (12:56):
Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's a set of skills as well. I can remember looking at other people early in my entrepreneurship journey thinking, oh, they're just lucky and they've got this. But then realizing that it's really just a giant puzzle piece and if you keep putting the pieces together, you're going to figure it out. And the skills that make me think they're lucky, I could go and learn. You can learn resilience, you can learn confidence, you can learn productivity is probably my biggest rant to, and not just anyone wanting to do motherhood and business, just anyone. You've got to learn to be able to do more in the day than the average person. And just going and learning these things was a thing. It's not you're confident or you're not, or you're resilient or you're not, or you are a good speaker or you're not. Go to work and learn them. And that process I think helped me identify those things. And I needed, and I went to work and I learned a lot about them and I'm still learning. I would love to tell you that I've got it all together, but
Danielle Lewis (13:52):
Spoiler.
Jessica Ndenda (13:53):
No spoiler.
Danielle Lewis (13:55):
So have you always been a business owner or was there a career journey before this? What got you to this point?
Jessica Ndenda (14:03):
Yeah, again, I'd love to tell you that's a really inspiring story, but it's total desperation. No, I wasn't. I always was a leader from grade six when I was school leaders all the way through to school. I started my career in retail and hospitality as a teenager was crew trainers and managers and leaders. So I think deep down, now that I reflect on it, I had this really uncomfortable feeling that I wanted to do something great, but I had no idea what that was and I didn't fit any of the boxes in my life. Every girl in my age group wanted to be an interior designer or a teacher, and I didn't want to be either of those two things. And there was no, again, no examples, no conversations in my space. And my husband was the first one he said to me, you should be a business owner.
(14:50):
And I can remember so clearly saying to him, it's just not that easy, Reg. You've either got to have an idea that no one else has or a lot of money. And that's what I thought. I genuinely believed that. And he makes me eat those words all the time because I went and I grew a really successful career with Michael Hill. I was a big part of building their second brand. And I did everything from performance management to sales training to product design, to branding, consulting, absolutely everything to build that. And I loved it and they taught me so much. But I was also working six days a week and all through Christmas, all through school holidays and not earning money that was changing our life as a young family trying to establish ourselves. We had two kids at the time. I accidentally got pregnant with number three.
(15:37):
I'm not very, one thing I haven't mastered in life is expecting my children. So I just remember thinking, I cannot do this again. I cannot put another baby in daycare and go back to this life. I was 150 kilos unhealthy on a puppy and just working my butt off for a reason I didn't really know. And so I met another mom who had from the school who had dabbled in social media really just when Instagram launched, it wasn't a thing. And she said, do you want to do this with me? I need help. And I went, absolutely not. You're ridiculous. And then yeah, she kind of sold it to me and she asked me to consult from there. And I was like, what? Sure Crazy lady, if you want to give me money and soon hit me that I actually did have some skills and I could actually make a bit of money.
(16:27):
And the aim at that point was only just to fund my maternity leave. But within six months we'd quit our jobs and we were replacing our full-time wage. And then the year after we doubled and hired two staff and the year after we'd doubled again and hired two more staff and it just went on and on and on. And I think sharing my journey is part of that. It's not easy, but it's so possible to anybody. And I think that we just don't have those conversations around entrepreneurship and what being an entrepreneur can look like, particularly for women. I think it's so intimidating and scary to think about starting a business, but I'm so grateful for that opportunity that this other mum at school gave me and she went up and had her family and I took over the business about four weeks ago, four years ago by myself. But it's part of Bell. It's so possible. There's nothing about business that isn't hard, it's just mindset is hard. And when you have those conversations and can be prepared for what's coming, do it as a community and surround yourself with people who get it at that level. Yeah, really exciting things happen.
Danielle Lewis (17:32):
Yeah, and I love that you said that your initial reaction was, no, I love that because I feel like someone externally, people would look at you and go, oh my God, of course, massively successful business owner obviously had this grand plan and this vision and was ready to take over the world. And really it was a bit of someone kind of had to pull you in the right direction and then you had to take a leap of faith and you didn't back yourself a hundred percent. But then I guess everything we've spoken about at the start of this podcast was this is all learnable, right? This is back yourself. This is learn to be productive. This is carving your own path. This is making mistakes. This is trying again. It's a really interesting, I love it because so many people I think don't get started because they think the path has to be clear.
Jessica Ndenda (18:23):
Oh, absolutely. And I can promise you now there's not a day of my life now as a CEO team of nine third business on the way that I don't Google how to do something, not a day that goes by this morning I was literally Googling. I can't even remember what it was, but it was something to do with my trust and what I'm supposed to be doing with that. It is genuinely a learning curve and it's been really interesting. My third business, I have a business partner and we're in the infancy of that and watching her go through that as a first time business owner, and it's just been this real art of when do I scoop her up and tell her what the end is going to be and when do I let her feel these things? Because I think there is a process there.
(19:07):
And the biggest piece game-changing move, I think that for me was I'm not very good at being vulnerable despite what I put out on my socials all the time. And I'm not too unashamed to say that in those early days of business when other people trigger you, one of the really awful things women do is beat each other up and beat yourself up. And I was in a really dark cycle of that for a really long time. It was a big part of why Belle was born. And I think that surrounding myself with people that I wanted to be like was one of the hardest things I did when you're in that mindset. But definitely one of the biggest game-changers and all the entrepreneurial quotes say you're the average of the five people and all of this stuff, but it's actually true. And then the flip side of that is, now I have this amazing life where I earn great money, I'm blessed with successful businesses and I work really hard for them.
(20:06):
Don't for one minute think that that was an accident and I have this kind of personal brand thing that I'm doing and people are falling out of my life. The rate of knots and it's kind of comes full circle. And the people that you're around are just so influential to the biases that you have about yourself being a woman in business, motherhood, and being so intentional about what you do about that is if there was one thing you could learn from my story, that would be it. I didn't come from people who took risks and were entrepreneurial. My school environment definitely didn't nurture that in me at all. I was just this loud, slightly funny girl that belonged in the drama rooms. All they knew what to do with me. And my circle of friends also has been really instrumental in my business growth. So making the decision to be around people that you want to be like. Whereas often if you're not in a good place, you surround yourself with people that you feel you're better than. And that's yeah, really unhealthy thing.
Danielle Lewis (21:06):
Oh my God, it's so true. And it's really interesting because I think that one thing we just said was fear of getting started, not knowing the road map, but you are right. The other barrier roadblock we put up in front of ourselves is that what's everyone else going to think? What if I post on social media and talk about this new business that I'm starting and people judge me? What if they say, who am I to do that? What expertise do I have? So some of us just don't get started
Jessica Ndenda (21:36):
And unfortunately that fear is real. I'm not
Danielle Lewis (21:40):
It end I don't think either.
Jessica Ndenda (21:41):
No, it only gets worse the bigger your platforms get. Literally, there is not a day that goes by not exaggerating the slightest where somebody from my past, whether it's school or work or church or different environments, doesn't slip into my deans and say, I've got this idea of what should I do with it? And my answer is always do it. And the next thing that comes back is, I don't want to look stupid. I want to make sure that I come to the table all professional. It's like, well, if you wait for your ducks to be in a row, they're going to fly away. And if you want to die thinking, I was afraid of what this group of people thought, I'd be more scared of dying without trying. And that's such a cliche thing that's on a T-shirt somewhere I'm sure. But it's really true.
(22:24):
And I think that, I'm not saying it's not easy, but the people who haven't stayed with me on this journey never wanted the best for me. They were surrounding themselves with people who they felt they were better than. And that's just a sick thing that particularly women do. You want to feel like you're the funniest out of your friends or the most successful. You've got to give yourself the most where you don't actively put yourself in a circle where you view yourself as the smallest. And that's exactly what you should do to grow. And if people are falling out of your life or judging what you're putting out there, they never wanted the best for you. But that doesn't make it easy. There is not a day that goes by that I don't dry reach at my TikTok like thousands and millions of videos. And I'm going, oh, Jess, you're such an idiot.
(23:09):
And I worry all the time, I've got a digital marketing agency, but I am a creative numpty. Like I cannot edit a TikTok video to save my life. The text always has a grammar mistake. And I think people are going to look at this and think all of my socials of fraud, but I'm not the one who obviously does the stuff. And so all of those feelings are real. Not to say they're not, but you just kind of have to ask yourself what's worse to live a life according to what those people want for you or something that could be great. And even if you try it and it fails you never worse off, you always think, well, I learned this, I did this. And as these things bamble out of my mouth, I also know it's so much easier said than done. But it's true. It's really true when you're on the other side of it,
Danielle Lewis (23:51):
It's so true. But I mean it's even bizarre that we as business owners think this way. If you went into a full-time job, if you started a new job today, you wouldn't know everything that you needed to even do your job, let alone be promoted to the next stage. So we are always learning on the go. Even when we start uni, we go, okay, I've decided I'm going to be a lawyer. We don't know everything on day one, but for some reason when we start a business, everyone thinks it's all going to be bright and shiny and polished and processes and procedures and all fantastic before we start, but it's like we're all starting from an idea.
Jessica Ndenda (24:28):
Yeah. One of my favorite people in the world talks on this, Amy Kate from Mindful Collective, if anyone's ever heard of her, she's a psychiatrist or psychologist. I get their sacks confused, but one of them. But she talks about the mental process that goes through when we're designed to follow a to-do list. So when we start a new job and we get a role description and we get a process and we get KPIs that what that does for our mental well-being versus wake up every day with a hundred different things we could do and having to make the decision of which way to go. It's the same kind of energy of having to create a road through a forest and clear trees and look at the stars to see where you are on the map and figure that out. It's the same mental energy. We don't have a roadmap built for us.
(25:11):
So I think these fears are real. And I think a lot of the business resources out there say, oh, mindset, just get over it. It's a thing that is a real feeling and it's a real process. But I have a weird slightly controversial idea that there's three types of people in the world. There's normal people, they want to go to work nine till five, they really don't care about responsibility. They're probably really passionate about doing a good job, but they live for the weekends and they flourish in that environment. And then you have people that are achievers, they want to be leaders or they want to perhaps be a freelancer, earn their own money, but they're happy at that point having some work-life balance and just they've got an achievement tick on their resume. They're good to go. And then the term that I call big life is, and it's what one of my programs is called, you're destined to do something big in this world.
(26:03):
You want to make a lot of money. You want to live a big life, you want to achieve big things. You want to change the world, change an industry, make an impact, make a statement. And if you are a big lifer, you'll always be unfulfilled doing anything else. It feels like other people don't get you. It feels like you don't enjoy conversations with the other two categories. You are all consumed by this thing that you have to do, even if you dunno what it is. It's like an itch you can't scratch. And I really good test for it is if you've read Brene Brown's books around her version of joy, where is your play space? Where do you lose track of time for a big life? And that's generally at work. That is our joy. That's where we get our fulfillment. And that idea is really challenging to us. And so if you have those signs of a big life, you've kind of got to be commit to life being really unhappy, being mediocre or giving it your all because there's no in between. For you, if you're supposed to do something big on this planet, that itch is not going away and you're not alone, but you're probably the minority in your circle and your group of friends. But when you meet other people that are like you, it starts to make a bit more sense.
Danielle Lewis (27:12):
That's so incredible. I love it. It makes me laugh because sometimes on the week when you think about where you get lost in finding joy, I just immediately went to, oh, I built this new web, I just had this idea. So I was just jumped on. I was like, I'm going to build a webpage, see how that worked, glue it all together. And my partner's like, okay, well I'm going to be watching Netflix if you need me.
Jessica Ndenda (27:30):
Exactly.
Danielle Lewis (27:31):
So I totally get that. And it is interesting though because there are a lot of people that don't get that right. There are. I remember losing quite a lot of my friends going through this whole process. And even now, it's funny, my therapist once said to me, do you have close friends? And I was like, well, I don't really want them. I was like, I've got my business chicks and they get what I'm trying to achieve and all that. And she's like, okay, well, so I kind of get it right. Not everyone is for you. And you have to find your people that are going to support what it is you want to achieve in life. I love that. I love it so much. Alright, one last big one for you. Women in business. So we've talked a lot about the just getting started. A lot of people that listen to this podcast are in the thick of it. They're right in the trenches, and they might be asking themselves why the fuck they actually chose this bar?
Jessica Ndenda (28:27):
We all, yeah,
Danielle Lewis (28:28):
Totally. As you reflect on your business journey, are there any things that you've learned, any big lessons you've learned that you'd love to impart that wisdom on others? Or any advice for anyone who's struggling to get through the day?
Jessica Ndenda (28:45):
Oh gosh, that is a lot. There's so many things. It's a
Danielle Lewis (28:48):
Long list.
Jessica Ndenda (28:49):
It's so many things. But I would say a couple of really big things. I think the biggest one is, and I almost hate that this is going to come out of my mouth, but your mindset. And I was so put off by looking at my mindset or learning about my mindset because every resource I found was really woo-woo. And there is not a woo-woo bone in my body. I have never manifested anything. I don't talk to my higher self. I don't journal, not because those things don't work, it's just not for me. And so I really struggled to understand my mindset, but you need to acknowledge that anyone who is choosing to be an entrepreneur is choosing to an abnormal life, a life that many others would give up on and do give up on. There is a mental load that we carry that's not always hard, but it's constant.
(29:35):
There's no days off, no when you'll leave, there's no wiping your hands clean. And you have to learn how to look after your mindset, otherwise you will start to hate the journey. And chances are become quite an intolerable person in that process. And my business at eight years would be in such a different place that if I didn't waste about three years in the whole being too stubborn to accept any sort of help around that. So mindset is a really big one. Learn what you need to do, stay healthy if you're in the thick of it. The biggest thing that, again, I make up this terminology so I dunno what others would call it, but we all think that business grape does this or if you're listening, it's an up and down mountain or a diagonal line that goes up, but it's not. I actually aligning it to a bunch of bubbles.
(30:25):
And so when you're growing your business and you grow up and grow it, your bubbles getting bigger and bigger and it feels like it's about to pop and you feel like you've got not an inch more to give and you are at capacity and everything in your body tells you to take a step back to rest and your bubble goes down again. But the answer in that season is not take a step back, is to keep going. And then you reach the next threshold where you can hire a staff member, you can build the program, you can outsource whatever that looks like in your business model and your bubble gets really small. Again, you've got a bit of space and you live in that season and you rest. And then the bubble is going to get bigger again and bigger and bigger, and you're almost going to pop.
(30:59):
But at that moment, don't go backwards, keep going forwards. Otherwise you're going to sit with a business that goes up and down like a bubble, inflating and deflating all the time. But you've got to push through that little bit. And the way that you do that is you make it a season, you can't stay there. So you give yourself a timeframe and you give yourself dates. So I'm in a six week season of hustle at the moment. My cleaner comes in extra time every week. She comes three times a week instead of two. I have real conversations with my husband, yo bro, I am tapping out. There's some long days in the office outside the kids and I need to do, don't book me for anything. There's nothing extra happening. I have conversations with my kids, I have conversations with my friends. They know I'm not going to be at all of that stuff, and I knuckle down for six weeks and then I come out of it.
(31:44):
And if you don't have that intentionality behind that and you can't see those bubbles and you don't have that mapped out in terms of costings and income, you stay there and you can't stay there. It's not healthy. It's not fun. So make sure it's a season. Give it timeframes, dates, numbers, make systems in your life to prioritize that season, whether it's two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, two months, and then come out of it and know that you've reached whatever goal it is to get those resources that are going to give you a break into your bubbles bigger again. I hope that makes sense. Have, there's normally pictures. It makes more sense with pictures.
Danielle Lewis (32:19):
I love it. No, I have never heard somebody explain it. Like bubbles. You are right. Every Instagram tile is like a roller coaster or a zigzag or whatever, or a ball of wool going all over the place. But you are right. It's that resistance that, oh God, this is not good. This is not really, everything's about to break but break. You're right. It's in that breaking. It's in the bursting of the bubble that you do move to the next phase,
Jessica Ndenda (32:44):
Especially if you're a service-based business, right? In the agency. We'll take on work and we'll prepare for it and we'll build the systems and the processes, but we can't necessarily hire for that work until there's a certain income reach. So when I'm doing those systems and those processes and starting that thing, like I'm at capacity on top of my normal workplace, there's nothing else happening. So then I can hire for it and my bubble is all automatically smaller and my cash flow's higher. So I can make other systems. And it's a similar bubble in e-commerce, but in service, you feel it more because often it's you that's actually got to get your hands dirty and do that work. So just make it a season is the biggest thing. Commit to six weeks of hell, even if you don't want to, can do anything for six weeks. Anything you can starve, go without water and light. There's nothing you cannot do for six weeks. So if you are in a season of growth, commit to it. Push forward, but don't stay there.
Danielle Lewis (33:35):
Oh, I love you so much. Jess, thank you so much for sharing your honesty with the Spark community. You are absolutely incredible. Thank you.
Jessica Ndenda (33:46):
Oh, you're so welcome. I hope some of those bamblings are useful to somebody.
Danielle Lewis (33:49):
Always me. As long as I'm happy I've got a page full of notes, so thank you.
Jessica Ndenda (33:54):
You're welcome.
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